بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
This is a very common question in our day and age especially amongst the youth. It is a question atheists usually pose or even people in our Ummah struggle with imane because of it.
Let us first explain the Qadar (the fact that everything is decreed) of Allah. The belief in Qadar is broken up into 4 things:
- Allah knows all things – what we deem to be the past, present and future – from eternity to eternity whether this is with His own actions or the action of His slaves.
- Allah has written that decree in al-Lawh al-Mahfoth (the Book of Decrees). Allah says in the Qu’ran:
“Do you not know that Allah knows what is in the heaven and earth? Indeed, that is in a Record [al-Lawh al-Mahfoth]. Indeed that, for Allah, is easy.” 22:70
The prophet (ﷺ) said: “Allah ordained the measures (of quality) of the creation fifty thousand years before He created the heavens and the earth, as His Throne was upon water.” [Muslim]
He (ﷺ) also said: “The first thing that Allah created was the Pen, and He said to it, ‘Write!’ It said, ‘O Lord, what should I write?’ He said: ‘Write down the decrees of all things until the Hour begins.” [Abi Dawood authenticated by al-Albaani]
- Whatever happens only happens by the will of Allah – whether that has to do with His actions or the actions of His creations. Allah says in the Qur’an
“And your Lord creates what He wills and chooses; not for them was the choice. Exalted is Allah and high above what they associate with Him.” 28:68
“He it is Who shapes you in the wombs as He wills” 3:6
- All things that happen are created by Allah in their essence, their attributes and their movements. Allah says in the Qur’an:
“Allah is the Creator of all things, and He is, over all things, Disposer of affairs.” 39:62
“He to whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and who has not taken a son and has not had a partner in dominion and has created each thing and determined it with [precise] determination.” 25:2
Now if we take these attributes, we can ask how can this be reconciled with free will?
In order to answers this question we must first ask what is it that Allah will not do? The things that will stop Him from being Allah – this means that if He were to stop carrying out any of the attributes He associated within His own essence (the creator, all-knowing, all-wise – all the names of Allah) then He will no longer be God. Therefore, the things that cannot change are the things that define His essential attributes.
We can now ask can Allah create a scenario whereby His creation (human beings, jinn etc.) has its free will and Allah is doing it at the same time?
The answer is yes, He can.
“And to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and Allah is over all things capable.” 3:189
Allah can have His decree in the book while we have our free will. How He does this, the metaphysics of how it can happen is beyond our limited thinking. It is similar to asking how can one have anything we want in jannah such as flying – the physics outside of our world (al-ghayb) is not the same. Time and space does not function the same. Allah limited this within our universe in regards to our life form; the outside has been covered from our senses (“saytara” – which means cover).
We as human beings cannot even fathom our own physical world. With all the technology we have, we barely even scratched the surface of what is going on around us, things we can see. So how is it that we expect to understand how Allah functions the unseen?
The good that comes from not knowing all of this is the optimism of the believer. The prophet said: “Wondrous is the affair of the believer for there is good for him in every matter and this is not the case with anyone except the believer. If he is happy, then he is thankful and thus there is good for him, and if he is harmed, then he shows patience and he is thankful, thus there is good for him.” [Islam]
We as human beings cannot control all the variables of life. The fact is that we die, people pass away around us, the worst of the worst things can happen to anyone. However, this concept of Qadar in Islam – the fact that everything is decreed, written by the creator – gives us incredible freedom and liberation. It allows us to go into the world which is swaying us around with variables out of our control and saying: whatever happens is good for us.
This is something a disbeliever can never even dream to obtain psychologically. If something bad happens they simply claim it is just jumbled atoms, we simply exist; there is no spiritual value at all. This is why there will always be a void in our hearts without belief in Allah. The only way to to release the chains of emptiness is to embrace Islam. Nothing will fill the heart with satisfaction except for the remembrance of Allah.
“Those who have believed and whose hearts are assured by the remembrance of Allah . Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah hearts are assured.” 13:28
Allah knows best.